Youth believed to be cultists have launched attach on a police team attached to the Delta state police command over alleged arrest of their members.
Operatives of the Operation Safer Delta, a special squad, were attacked around Sapele axis of the state leaving some of them badly injured, while two Toyota Sienna vehicles were damaged.
The injured police officers were rushed to an undisclosed hospital in the area, while five of the suspected cultists were arrested.
It was gathered that the operatives had previously arrested some miscreants, adding that the remnants regrouped and mobilised to attack the patrol team with clubs and cutlasses.
A source said, “They went and mobilised more of their members to ambush the police team in an attempt to free their colleagues who were arrested earlier. They came with various objects to achieve their mission. In the process some officers sustained injuries while the two patrol vehicles which were recently procured to strengthen the team were destroyed.
“As we speak, some policemen are in the hospital because of the injuries sustained during the attack. The police officers were very tactful in dealing with the situation if not some of the suspects would have been killed.”
The state Commissioner of Police, Hafiz Inuwa, who confirmed the attack and arrest, said the miscreants were very daring to have attacked armed policemen.
“If not that our men exhibited very high level of professionalism, the story would have be different. How can a man with cutlass be attacking armed police officers?”
Inuwa said seven suspects were initially arrested, but that one of the prime suspects exonerated two others who were let go by the police.
He said the principal suspect, an electrician, who went to mobilise others for the daring attack was still on the run, adding that the Command “has already spread out its dragnets to trap the fleeing ring leader and others.”
